Allison Johnstone- "In this series I explore the earth mother archetype and our connection to it. The earth mother understands that in our roots we are one and the same, that we are together. The imagery explores how our own roots are connected to those within our environment and that through connection with nature we can strengthen our sense of ourselves and the protective nature of the archetypical energy."

Allison Johnstone is an amateur photographer from both the east and west coasts of Scotland. Her journey into photography began in 2016 and she is interested in the photographic process as an expression of our inner worlds externally.

INTO THE EARTH by Allison Johnstone(click on image for larger view)

WE ARE TOGETHER by Allison Johnstone(click on image for larger view)

I WISH I KNEW HER THEN by Amy KankaFIRST PLACE WINNER(click on image for larger view)

Curator Susan Spiritus: "Lately, in my personal life, I have been trying to expand the family tree on both sides of our family so that my adult children can get a better idea as to who my relatives were. Both my husband and I grew up in New York and during the entire time of our childhood, until we left home for college, we knew our respective family members….cousins, aunts and uncles; perhaps even some second cousins of our parents and even other distant folks whom I never could understand where they fit in the family, but knew they were related. To help, my mother created a family tree in hopes that it would help, (she was a teacher!) but in truth, I really didn’t care (then) nor understood!

However, today, as I look back on it, and try to explain who these people are/were to my children, I’m still having difficulties. I decided that I would tackle this task of updating it for the generations to come.

Back then, growing up during the ’40’s, 50’s and 60’s, families were of a much tighter group. Kids grew up and stayed in the local area or relatively nearby to where their families were living. No one really ventured very far away.

However, once I left home to go off to college, I never looked back and spread my wings and went west. My brother did the same as did my husband’s siblings. To this point, we all spread out. We had families of our own, but our kids grew up without the close knit family ties. While our kids know their immediate cousins, but certainly not as well as I knew mine, what has been lost is the close interactions and friendships.

We have some photos but they are spread out over years or even decades. My kids' cousins have now married and have had children of their own and another generation has come into and onto the family tree. We’ve lost touch and don’t know who these people are.

This all leads me to my decision to select Amy Kanka’s image, “I Wish I Knew Her Then" to be my choice for first place in the submissions of “Root”. “I Wish I knew Her Then” and “All That Remains” spoke volumes to me and are perfect images to illustrate, “Root”.

“I Wish I Knew Her Then” appears to be very old, perhaps even a little tattered and worn from age. I can envision it being faded from lack of proper care and storage. The shoes, too, off to the side appear to be similar to those my mom wore (circa 1915) and a reminder of earlier days.

Who is this young girl? What are those white dots in the image? If they’ve been added, after the fact, they are very effective.

If it is as the result of its age, then all the better. I also love the crack or scratch or perhaps it’s a crease in the emulsion all of which are positive clues for its age and only add to the mystery. What is the date of this photograph? I do not think it is from the early 1900’s, but rather from mid century years, as the girl’s dress looks more modern than from the old days, as we say.
These are questions that I’d like to know the answers to…."

Amy Kanka: "The image is based on an old picture of my mom taken in Romania when she was a little girl. I do not know the exact date of the photograph, but my guess is that it was captured before WW2 (during the war the family was busy being deported to the ghetto and work camps, hard to believe they had time for photographs).

A scan of this old photo was combined with two of my recent images: a photograph of old girl shoes taken at an estate sale, and another one (the white dots) of specular lights on the ocean.

My mom's photo is rather tattered and creased, Susan you are absolutely right, it was not well preserved. I kept the creases and stains from the original photo in the final image."

Curator Susan Spiritus: "Thanks Amy for your quick reply and as I thought for part, but certainly not for the other parts (white dots!)

Loved your submissions and story- close to my heart and not far from my own history. Thank you."

Kanka says about this work, "I came across it when tidying up the bookshelves, an album put together a long time ago for my beloved grandma. When she passed away, it ended up back with me. Looking at her old photographs, brought back a flood of love and longing. What began as a pure desire to have her back into my life, turned into a process of taking an honest look at myself through her eyes. “Between here and then” is the visual representation of this process.

This portfolio examines the origins of personal identity as it relates to our hereditary, cultural and psychological backgrounds. An intimate exploration of the extent our ancestors, upbringing and own decisions shape us into the individuals we are.

Each image examines an aspect of our "self", collectively they unveil a multi-dimensional puzzle where we are both the pieces and the puzzle solver."

Amy Kanka Valadarsky was born in Communist Romania and raised in Israel. After graduating as a software engineer, she worked in the Telecommunication industry and spent the next 25+ years traveling around the globe designing software solutions that address the challenges of an increasingly interconnected world. In 2014, after leaving the hi-tech world, Amy returned to her creative roots and began a career as a fine art photographer.

Amy’s work was selected as a Critical Mass 2016 finalist, as well as featured in SHOTS, Black &White Magazine, Lenscratch and exhibited in a variety of galleries and photo festivals such as PhotoLa 2016, Los Angeles Center for Photography, dnj and bG galleries in Bergamot Station, Santa Monica.

She lives with her husband and two cats in Santa Monica, California, while the rest of her family (including the dog) wait patiently for her to return to Israel.

Andres Otero says of his work, " These pictures are part of an essay about Brazilian designer Hugo França. He uses
rests of dead trees to create furniture and sculptures, using their natural forms to create his pieces.

My photography speaks about the history of things either subdued in an image as a single object, or assertively in the form of essays, describing direct and indirectly creative processes, as well as their ambience. Sometimes the ambiance itself tells about things, becoming the main subject.

I am a Brazilian-Spanish photographer living in Lausanne. most of my professional carreer has been developed in Brazil and Italy."

Anna Agoston says of her work, "Untitled--a romantic typology of form--is an ongoing master series of black-and-white macro/micro photographs of plant elements. The subjects are small, inconsequential and often not noticed or seen, but unique and precious.

The photographs are taken in nature, parks and gardens. Taking, sharp macro photographs outside the studio, where plants move with the breeze, is possible because of today's digital technology.

Photographing in nature has become a critical aspect of my work because it meets my need for contemplation.

My Untitled series is a form of contemplation. Examining each subject from different angles and using different light exposures makes me aware of its form and the feelings that it stirs in me.
The photograph is ready when I think that it communicates what I have come to see and feel about my subject.

I discovered contemplation while recovering from occupational burnout and learned that it heals by centering attention on the present moment.

Now I hope that my photographs will be subjects of contemplation for others, helping them to see and feel, too.

The photographs are abstract in their departure from reality because I use black-and-white, a macro lens, a photographic technique that makes it possible to obscure the background and symmetry and composition to distill chosen aspects of my subjects. Yet the series is hyperrealistic in that images present sharp, high-resolution fragments of seemingly palpable substance.

Although the medium is photography, I have come to think of my series as sculpture. There is an emphasis on the architecture, form and texture. It also stresses what the subject may evoke in the viewer since the natural elements strategically placed within the frame may evoke certain animal behaviors (like seduction and withdrawal) or emotions (like sadness, joy, and love).

Each photograph's portrait format and white frame act like a sculpture base, containing the subject, emphasizing feelings related to form, and the link between earth and sky.
The stem of a leaf is stretched up against the length of the frame in order to enhance a certain behavior that the subject evokes. Within a dark background, a subject appears isolated in space, often striving to reach the sky.

As a whole, the series is a spectrum of images that enables the viewer to shift from one image to another and compare.

I show my pictures in a slow progression from a circular to a tubular typology and then to more complex forms. Or I may vary the typologies while keeping a common thread from one image to the next.

My pictures are displayed on a vertical plane to be read in lines from top to bottom and left to the right, as in Western texts. In Japan, I will therefore order my pictures to be read in columns from top to bottom and right to left.

I have no wish to educate or impose my own thoughts on viewers, but rather I want them to see and feel things independently. For this reason, my work is untitled.

The Untitled Series builds on the visual metaphor legacy of Edward Weston and furthers the macro photography tradition of Karl Blossfeldt by making high-resolution photographs of plant forms in nature. It is unlike the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher in that I am developing a romantic typology of natural forms in which feeling is perceptible."

Anna Agoston is a French-American artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her black and white macro photographs of plant elements photographed in nature challenge aesthetics by inviting contemplation.

An architect certified by the French government, Agoston is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture Paris-Malaquais and of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, where she earned the Master in Architecture II degree (MArch II). Her career as an artist began in October 2013, when she made the first photograph in her "Untitled: a romantic typology of form", an ongoing master series of 240. This body of work, which synthesizes her long-held interests in psychology, cell biology, and architecture, has been drawing international attention.

Photographs in the “Untitled” series have now been included in more than one dozen group exhibitions across the United States of America, and have been published in print and online art magazines in several countries.

In addition, Agoston’s self-published books – Untitled Vol.1 and Untitled Vol. 2 – have been added to the shelves of libraries at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., among others.

Agoston was deeply affirmed and encouraged when Pritzker Architecture Prize recipient Toyo Ito wrote to her in 2014, "Pictures in your book are so beautiful that they give me design inspiration.”

She has written about her own work in two articles published by the Huffington Post Arts & Culture Blog: "An artist's perspective on inspiration and making art" (July 22, 2015) and "Art seen through the lens of its architect" (December 31, 2015).

A child mind is lost forever in environment build upon practicality of the survival. The natural wonder is killed permanently by constantly implemented the pattern of labelling and judging, taught and repeated first by our parents later just confirmed by others. The easiness of granting my plastic, childhood friends unconditional love is a long lost memory covered in the dust and replaced by the intellectual slavery of “common sense”.

My artistic aim is to restore confidence in intuitive or instinctive approach as well as raise a few question marks on the way if I’m lucky."

Artur Golacki is a multidisciplinary artist working with traditional mediums as well as installations and assemblages. He was born in Wroclaw, Poland where he also accomplished a Master Degree in Fine Arts, currently lives and works in Millport, Scotland.

CHRYSANTHEMUM DECONSTRUCTED by Brian Grandfield(click on image for larger view)

Brian Grandfield says of his work, "I first started taking pictures with any sort of serious intent in 1995. I was an avid orchid grower and wanted to capture these magnificent flowers. At the time I had a Minolta Maxxum with some very slow slide film, a 50mm macro lens and a yard of wrinkled black fabric for the background.
Those first pictures were just a little bit blurry and strangely off color, yet somehow quite satisfying. I was initially concerned with documenting the flowers I managed to grow (mostly as proof that I could actually grow them!). Over time, I began exploring the curves and sensuous form of the flowers themselves in a more abstract way.
This series of images is an elaboration of that journey, and our perception of form. The flowers are deconstructed into their root components (petals, leaves, stems), then reassembled to create new and unexpected forms. At first glance, some flowers may look quite similar to the original, but deeper examination reveals that all is not as it seems. In other images, the components create something entirely new, yet the original subject remains perceptible.

It is this interplay between familiar and new, whole and component, perception and reality that I hope challenges the viewer to make their own connection with these images.

I grew up in a small town south of Boston – we lived in a big house set back from the street, with a long fenced garden running the length of the driveway. My grandmother planted zinnias by the hundred in that garden, and I would help her weed and tend to the flowers during the summer months. It was in these gardens that I developed my love of nature, flowers especially.

My grandmother and grandfather taught me so much about what it means to be connected to the earth, and gave me a passion for learning and exploration that I cherish to this day. It wasn’t until I started growing orchids as a hobby that I picked up a camera with any serious intent. At first, it was the technical challenge of photography that intrigued me. But as I grew more comfortable taking pictures, I discovered what a wonderful creative medium it is. When it all comes together – creatively, technically and emotionally – the result is the purest form of expression."

Shows/exhibits:

A Rose by Any Other Name; Huntington Arts Council, March 2016 (Huntington, NY)

ROSE DECONSTRUCTED by Brian Grandfield(click on image for larger view)

THREE PETALS by Brian Grandfield(click on image for larger view)

FAMILY TREE by Marilyn CarrenHonorable Mention(click on image for larger view)

Susan Spiritus: "When one thinks of "Root", I immediately think of ones family tree! Marilyn Carren's photograph was the clear and simple illustration of a family
tree. I loved all of the postage stamps and complexity of the image which, again speaks to our heritage!"

Marilyn Carren says of her work, "I am consumed by my family; its history, personality, victories, and tragedies. I even live in the Rio Grande Valley, a border area in Texas where my family began over a century ago when my great grandmother met my great grandfather. Images of palm trees, irrigation canals, and Moorish architecture overlap with my memories, feelings, and recognitions of the people who raised, nourished, and defined me.

A relentless and recurring theme in my work is the concept of family in the broadest yet most intimate sense. To service this wide array of sensations, thoughts and ideas, I have been concentrating on portraiture for several years, expanding the definition of that genre in my own way as intelligently and honestly as I can.

A recent death in my family has made me the beneficiary of a treasure trove of emotionally transcendent objects of all kinds, but the items I treasure the most are the documents, handwritten letters and personal objects once held dear by my family’s lineage. Using a technique that I call “Muscle Memory”, I have attempted to deconstruct and reconstruct these old negatives, photographs, personal papers and familiar objects to recreate a new narrative of my roots or family line.

Sometimes I generate these amalgams in the traditional darkroom using old negatives, discarded microfiche and digital negatives. Other times I use a flatbed scanner and Photoshop to construct my re-imagined realities of family members both past and present. Whatever approach, technique or strategy I might use, the images I create all service my principal endeavor, to connect and explore the pantheon of feelings I have for not only my own family but my desire to build a bridge for my audience to their own passions and philosophies regarding their own roots."

Marilyn Carren is an interdisciplinary artist and an educator at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg, Texas, specializing in photographic arts.

Her research agenda includes studying contemporary art practices that utilize alternative photo processes. Marilyn weaves analog, traditional, historical and digital photography skills throughout her work and teaches these practices to her students in a class titled “Photo as an Art Form.” When using primarily digital mediums she frequently explores photography in the 4th dimension, virtual space, and is fascinated by the new technologies that are informing current photographic theory and practice.

Dale Niles says of his work, "While my mother was in hospice I sat with her as she told me family stories about my relatives, who was related to who and each of their stories. Some of the people and stories I recognized; some I didn’t. They poured out of her with an urgency to share all that she knew, like a computer downloading all its information, and I knew to be patient and listen carefully as these were stories of my heritage.

When she died 8 years ago I inherited boxes and boxes of things that ranged from a sundry of family pictures, spanning back to the 1800’s, to a wide variety of objects, ranging from art to my grandmother’s cooking fork.

These items have filled my guest room closet and sat in my garage gathering dust. A bit overwhelmed, I kept thinking, “What do I do with it all?” Feeling the responsibility to preserve my family’s ancestry in a meaningful way, I came up with the aesthetic concept of beautifully photographing the old photos and items, sometimes pairing them with the person that the item had a connection with. My four children were all named after a family member so this process is also a means for me to tell them part of their ancestral story.

I feel a deep satisfaction in this artwork as my heritage bridges to my present, merging our family roots and visually telling our story.

My photography is a connection to my existence. I attempt to unobtrusively observe the interaction of people and nature to view life in its truest moments. Being behind a camera takes me to another place, it helps me really see."

EXHIBITIONS & AWARDS:

-2016
-Awarded the gold prize in the Tokyo International Foto Awards in the People/Family category for
"Solidifying Roots" series

Dale Reid says of her work, "In researching the definition of “root”, I found that in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, “root” means to have sex with. I selected three of my provocative images from my oyster mushroom series that is reflective of this definition. Rather than titling each image, I numbered them to seduce the viewer to form their own interpretation. My oyster mushroom series is a developing online exhibition at www.dejeuner-photo.com.

Photography has been a part of my life since 1977. After taking a course in photography at Ryerson University in 1999, I started to view photography as an art form. The course provided me with presentation and darkroom skills. Based on feedback, I had already developed a photographic eye. Since 1999, I have worked at further developing my photographic eye.

Prior to 1999, I utilized the color photographic medium to present my views of travel and nature. In 1999, I switched to the black and white photographic medium and focused my work to three main subject areas, Canadian Maritime provinces to document and preserve the unique views of fishing harbors; landscapes; and floral studies.

In April 2004, I entered a new phase in my life by leaving the corporate world after about thirty-five years to pursue my passion for photography. The last several years were at the middle management level.

Since becoming a professional photographer:

• I have focused on expanding my portfolio which now includes still life, floral, urban, mystery girl series, maritime, landscapes and industrial. During my participation in Contact, Toronto Photography Festival, I have introduced themed work as well as expanding my artwork in the various subject areas of my portfolio. Today I have narrowed the scope of my artwork to include floral and still life studies.

• Through extensive hands on work in a wet darkroom, I have developed a high degree of technical experience in pulling silver prints. I am now being recognized as producing prints which have high definition and good tonal range."

Diana Bloomfield says of her work, "The ‘root’ of something represents its primary source, its origin, and the basic core from which all else grows. Each of these images, for me, represents that basic element, whether it’s the circularity of life, that which might symbolize the sun, the moon, even a home, or the fruit of the ancient pomegranate- an edible, seed-bearing, reproductive fruit."

Diana Bloomfield has been an exhibiting photographer for over thirty years. She has received numerous awards for her images, including a 1985 New Jersey State Visual Arts Fellowship, and five Regional Artist Grants from the United Arts Council of Raleigh, NC, most recently for 2015-16. She was a Critical Mass Finalist in 2014.

Specializing in 19th century printing techniques, Diana's images have been included in a number of books, including Pinhole Photography: Rediscovering a Historic Technique (3rd Edition), by Eric Renner; Robert Hirsch's Exploring ColorPhotography Fifth Edition: From Film to Pixels(2011); Christina Z. Anderson's Gum Printing and Other Amazing Contact PrintingProcesses (2013); Jill Enfield's Guide to Photographic Alternative Processes: Popular Historical and Contemporary Techniques (2013); and, most recently, in Christopher James' The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes(3rd Edition, March 2015).

Her work has also been included in the Pinhole Journal;The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography; Chinese Photography; The Sun; Diffusion;The HAND Magazine; North Carolina Literary Review;Shadow & Light; SxSE (South x Southeast), and most recently, featured in Silvershotz. Diana is also a contributing writer for Don't Take Pictures.

Diana also works as an independent curator and has organized and curated several pinhole and alternative process exhibitions, including “Pure Light: Southern Pinhole Photography,” shown at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), in Winston-Salem, NC in 2004. And the exhibit,“Old is New Again: Alternative Processes,” which was originally shown at the Green Hill Center for NC Art, in Greensboro, NC, was invited for exhibition at the 2004 Pingyao International Photography Festival, in Pingyao, China.

She was also an invited artist to the first Qinghai International Photography Festival, in Xining, China, where she exhibited in the summer of 2006.

Her work is in a number of public and private collections, including the New Mexico History Museum, in Santa Fe, NM, and the Gregg Museum of North Carolina State University, in Raleigh, NC.

A native North Carolinian, Diana currently lives and works in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she received her MA in English Literature and Creative Writing from North Carolina State University. Her work is represented by Tilt Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Diana Velasco says of her work, "Dual Nationality is a series of portraits of men and women who are all of dual nationality. Every subject is duplicated to underline the duality that comes from originating from different countries.

Being Spanish/Danish myself, I was curious to meet others with a similar double background –with roots in more than one place. My artwork asks these questions: Does the two nationalities co-exist in everyday life, and if so, in what way? In a globalized world, does it even make sense to talk about roots?

I visited around 20 people in their homes and made the series of eight portraits that has been exhibited at museums in Copenhagen, Chicago, Seattle, Iowa and Washington DC."

Ecindy Stein says of her work, "A New Yorker all my life. Studied Fine Art and Photography through the CUNY Baccalaureate Program. Stepped away from photography to raise a family and came back when life became digital. I love to immerse myself in the entire process of photography – from concept to completion of the image. I believe in shooting multiple genres as it refreshes the eye and opens up new ways seeing each genre."

Stein's work has been published both in the New York Times and Pulse Magazine

E.K. Waller says of his work, ""Birds Over Havana", from my Cuba Series:
I went to a rooftop party in Havana, Cuba, with dancers and drummers of local Cubans. At one point, someone opened a door to a rooftop shed and a slew of homing doves flew out and proceeded to fly in circles above this village area. After a time, the birds eventually all came home to their rooftop shed! I feel this is my signature shot in Cuba. It speaks to the roots of the Cuban people, of where they are in the world.

I am a seeker. I love to find stories on the streets of the world. People interacting with the environment and with each other, excites me. I love photographing the full range of human experience, people getting along and not getting along. It makes for good photographs. I am for discourse even if it results in a fight or a good chase. I love seeing gestures, the wind and movement of all kinds. I observe playfulness and the argumentative. The yin and the yang. I am enamored of the best and worst of people.
Atmospheric conditions are outstanding. I tell my students, “if it is raining, about to rain, has just rained, or is threatening to rain, go shoot pictures.” I like things displaced by the wind. Storms and fog are a blessing.

It is an extraordinary thing to witness a devastating scene. I like to expose the problematic to open the door to solutions. I like to contrast the differences I find. Great photography for me, is like an exceptional bonsai tree whose story is evidenced by its survival, on the edge of a cliff, living while weathering the elements for untold years. Compelling art is often about the struggle.

I love to watch people, observe their actions and interactions in their environment. I love a photograph where you wonder about the situation. It is nice for the viewer to be able to create a story in that. I love a good yarn.

I have always been interested in the medium, the visuality, the illumination, the presentation, the field, the subject, the narrowing of focus, the light. I love infrared. I am beginning to like just a bit of color, a limited pallet with a dusty oldness to it where I can shine a light on timelessness, even in modernity. I live to see beyond the corner. I know what I am looking for and yet I know nothing. This knowing of nothing is what allows me to pursue my mind’s eye.
I let perception guide me.
I look for something recognizable.
I search for evidence."

EK Waller says of this piece, ""Cuba Music Room", from my Cuba Series:
Back in time in a store front in Havana. Music and art, visible in this room, are highly encouraged in Cuba. In fact, when I asked our guide who made the most money in Cuba, it was not the doctors other professionals; it was the artists, musicians, and dancers! Every restaurant I went to, breakfast, lunch & dinner, had dancers and musicians. Music is at the root of a culture; it is their voice."

PIG AND CLOTHESLINE by EK Waller(click on image for larger view)

EK Waller says of this piece, ""Pig and Clothesline", from my Cuba Series:
On the way to Trinidad, Cuba, we stopped at a children's school in the country and adjacent to it was a row of homes where a family allowed me inside their fence to photograph. They were as happy to have me there as I was to be there! Living off and on the land is truly the root of a people."